Two cities united by grief after shootings

I came from Pittsburgh hours after Wednesday’s shooting, where another gunman had killed 11 people less than two weeks before.

Both are well-off areas where nobody could have ever believed an atrocity like this could affect their community.

Thousand Oaks was the country’s 307th mass shooting – where four or more people are killed – in the US so far this year and the reaction is the same every time – how could it happen here?

Image:People watch the procession carrying the body of Sgt Ron Helus, a victim of the California shooting

When the third safest city in America this year becomes a victim, where is there to go? How many lives have to be taken for US gun laws to change?

Last month’s deadly shooting in Pittsburgh – at a synagogue – dominated the city’s midterm voting.

The tragedy in the Squirrel Hill district of the Pennsylvanian city is still very raw, and for many the end of the midterms represents a time when they can now grieve without the politics.

On Tuesday, the memory of the 11 people killed and six injured was marred as posters affiliated with the neo-Nazi Patriot Front group appeared on lampposts in the south Pittsburgh area of Brookline.

Image:Turnout across the city is thought to have reached record numbers

Pittsburghers had dealt with a lot, with most people in the city not appreciating Donald Trump swooping in to make the shooting part of the Republican election campaign.

There were protests when he came and his reaction definitely had an effect on voter turnout – illustrated by queues outside the Carnegie Library polling station just a few minutes from the Tree of Life synagogue.

Turnout across the city was estimated to have reached record numbers.

Image:Demonstrators made clear their opposition to the president’s visit last month